Hey guys, picked up another e30 over the weekend. 89 325I 5spd, I must say she is much faster than my eta.
I guess I'll start with the history of the car. The previous owner built it to be a track car. He knew alot about e30's himself and just purchased his first e30 m3 (hence the sale of his e30), so I felt confident somewhat about the last five years of the cars life.
The car so far from what I've inspected, (and from what I was told) is rust free. Its pretty much gutted except for a perfect dash, and sparco seats. What interior is there, is really nice.
The exterior is alright. The body has 240k. There are no dents or major dings. There was a small dent on the QP that has been repaired. Paint is faded and mismatching. Basically needs a respray really badly. Valance is in pretty bad shape but I've seen worse. IS lookalike lip that was made actually looks pretty good. ESM wheels that aren't my fav, but fit well and look nice. All in all from far away she looks like a dime, close up...ehhhh.
Engine is really clean from what I can see. I was told it was rebuilt about 8k ago, but not trusting that. The handling of the car however is absolutely phenomenal. Hugs corners at high speeds and I have no problem getting her sideways. Its on coilovers and the ride compared to my eta on h&r springs are two worlds apart.
All in all, I was happy with the buy, until last night and this morning.
Last night, as I was leaving dinner, I went to start the car and all the dash warning lights dimmed on, it sounded as if it was trying to start, but the battery was dead. Then I jumped it, dash lights turned off and she drove home. We unplugged the stereo over night and the amp, and this morning she wouldn't start either. Jumped the car and drove her to work. (There is an after market alarm on the car that seems pretty cheap/doesn't work very well, so dunno if that has anything to do with it)
I have a good 40 minute commute to work. Traffic at one point was really bad, and thats when the temp started to climb. There is no clutch fan, and I used the ac fan to see if it would do any justice. Eventually, the temp got a little over 3/4 the way, and I took an exit to get her moving again so she would fully over heat.
Like I said, I just bought the car Saturday, and it wasn't having any issues that day and we drove her around all day. We noticed she ran a little warm, but this morning I saw what happens if you let the car idle. My other e30 without a clutch fan runs warm too at idle, but didn't climb nearly as fast as this one did.
This is the second e30 in my life and I'm slowly learning all the odds and ends with these cars. I love love love them and my eta has been really reliable for almost the past year. That car has 250k+. I'm having my mechanic look at this one tomorrow, and do a full run down with me on the car. Ill update when that happens, but for now, any comments/opinions/wise words are appreciated!!
*Excuse the dirty pics, haven't had time to give her a detail.
I guess I'll start with the history of the car. The previous owner built it to be a track car. He knew alot about e30's himself and just purchased his first e30 m3 (hence the sale of his e30), so I felt confident somewhat about the last five years of the cars life.
The car so far from what I've inspected, (and from what I was told) is rust free. Its pretty much gutted except for a perfect dash, and sparco seats. What interior is there, is really nice.
The exterior is alright. The body has 240k. There are no dents or major dings. There was a small dent on the QP that has been repaired. Paint is faded and mismatching. Basically needs a respray really badly. Valance is in pretty bad shape but I've seen worse. IS lookalike lip that was made actually looks pretty good. ESM wheels that aren't my fav, but fit well and look nice. All in all from far away she looks like a dime, close up...ehhhh.
Engine is really clean from what I can see. I was told it was rebuilt about 8k ago, but not trusting that. The handling of the car however is absolutely phenomenal. Hugs corners at high speeds and I have no problem getting her sideways. Its on coilovers and the ride compared to my eta on h&r springs are two worlds apart.
All in all, I was happy with the buy, until last night and this morning.
Last night, as I was leaving dinner, I went to start the car and all the dash warning lights dimmed on, it sounded as if it was trying to start, but the battery was dead. Then I jumped it, dash lights turned off and she drove home. We unplugged the stereo over night and the amp, and this morning she wouldn't start either. Jumped the car and drove her to work. (There is an after market alarm on the car that seems pretty cheap/doesn't work very well, so dunno if that has anything to do with it)
I have a good 40 minute commute to work. Traffic at one point was really bad, and thats when the temp started to climb. There is no clutch fan, and I used the ac fan to see if it would do any justice. Eventually, the temp got a little over 3/4 the way, and I took an exit to get her moving again so she would fully over heat.
Like I said, I just bought the car Saturday, and it wasn't having any issues that day and we drove her around all day. We noticed she ran a little warm, but this morning I saw what happens if you let the car idle. My other e30 without a clutch fan runs warm too at idle, but didn't climb nearly as fast as this one did.
This is the second e30 in my life and I'm slowly learning all the odds and ends with these cars. I love love love them and my eta has been really reliable for almost the past year. That car has 250k+. I'm having my mechanic look at this one tomorrow, and do a full run down with me on the car. Ill update when that happens, but for now, any comments/opinions/wise words are appreciated!!
*Excuse the dirty pics, haven't had time to give her a detail.
Comment